Untitled Series

The first three of what will be a series of eight...Contemporary Dialogues closed yesterday and it's back in the studio tomorrow.

Text for:
My Parents Had A Baby And It Looked Like You; Assemblage; 48.5” x 36.5”; 2024; $14,000.00
 
You ask, where did we come from? I will tell you.
 
We were spit out of a spiraling vortex where there was no consciousness of this reality, where cause and effect had no meaning or nothing else had meaning for that matter. Nothing was loved or cherished. Nothing was hated. Nothing was named. Nothing had value.
 
What saved us, if that’s even the correct term, wasn’t a god. Perhaps it was a mutated gene.
 
All we could do was live—stay alive. Breathe in and out. Pump blood through our veins. Replace nourishment to our vital organs.
 
We learned to kill with our bare hands and we learned to like it.
 
We focused all of our energies on devising ways to kill, and in doing so, we realized that the more life we snuffed out, the safer we felt. No other life became more important than ours.
 
We embraced everything that was toxic and harmful.
We ate shit.
Breathed water.
Exhaled noxious gas.
Still we didn’t die. 
We actually grew stronger.
 
And now here we are.
 
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People Cling To Their Beliefs And Prejudices Like A Drowning Person Clings To A Plank Of Wood In The Middle Of The Ocean. Just Learn To Swim. Or Better Yet, Learn To Fly; Assemblage; 48.5” x 36.5”; 2023; $12,000.00
 
You have to work for money. Work. You work hard and you save it and invest it and grow it so you can acquire things like a house and a nice car —a new one not some “pre-owned” second hand piece of shit and then another nice car and cool clothes so you have a comfortable life and that is how you become a success!
 
A wealthy person is a wise person. He must be, otherwise, how else could he have attained so much wealth?
 
A wealthy person is a fair, moral, and deserving person. It’s a blessing to have money. There is so much goodness in our country that if you can’t transcend poverty, you’re just stupid, lazy, and ignorant.
 
It’s shameful to be poor. Disgraceful.
 
When I look at someone like you, I think to myself, just what would Jesus do if He saw you?
 
I’ve never understood people who say growing up, they were poor but they didn’t know it. How could you not know?!  Are you stupid? Didn’t you see your neighbor had a better car? A nicer house? Nicer clothes? Are you fucking blind?
 
In this world there are Us(es) and Them(s), and if you find that statement repulsive or repugnant, well…let’s just say it’s more convenient being an Us.
 
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Omigod, You Just Literally Described, Like, My Entire Life In Four Stanzas; Assemblage; 48.5” x 36.5”; 2024; $12,500.00
 
Did you ever say to yourself, boy did I walk into the wrong room? It’s like, you see this door, and even though it’s closed, there’s something drawing you to it. It’s like it’s hypnotically saying to you, open me. You’re getting sleepy. Sleepy. Open me. And so you open it.
 
 Inside there are all these people and as soon as you open the door all conversation stops and all these heads swivel in your direction and you see all these faces…all these faces!…and you realize, boy, did I walk into the wrong room.
 
‘Cause you know everyone in there and you know they can’t stand you or you make them really uncomfortable. Or disgusted.  Something. And you’re like, oh excuse me and the people are like…what the fuck?
 
Or they’re angry, like you just interrupted something really important, like a demonic worship ceremony, and it was just at the most important part where they were going to summon Beelzebub and you ruined the whole thing and now they’re going to have to start all over.
 
That happens to me…a lot.